Thank you very much. Like all of your questions, that's worthy of a day's discussion.
But to respond, when I talk about a national program, I'm referring to a program that uses all the tools at our disposal as educators. The first tool is the classroom. In Canada, there's a very extensive community college and school board network that can reach adults in urban and rural areas in classroom situations. That's one way to learn. But not everyone's able to learn well in the classroom.
The second area I think of where we could increase capacity is the workplace. Here in Toronto and in other cities, Frontier College, in a hotel like this, has taught the workers who do read well to help their co-workers who don't read so well. We know that goes on anyway. Workers support one another informally all the time. We need to mobilize and increase capacity through the formal school system and through workplace programs. I agree with you entirely. Frontier College actually is a community-based organization. All of our work is done using volunteers at the community level.
And again, for many adults who have not done well in school and who have had negative school experiences, the idea of walking into a classroom or a literacy class...it's not going to happen. But if they can work with a trained volunteer in their home or in a coffee shop or in a community centre, they can build up their skills and build up their confidence. I know in New Brunswick there's been tremendous, very positive results with the community access program, which I think began with former Premier McKenna.
Using classroom and school capacity, using workplaces, and using community-based programs is important. Then finally, we need strategies for people with special needs--aboriginal people, seniors, and people perhaps living in rural Canada, where there are not as many services available.
With respect to your point about technology, you're absolutely right, the literacy landscape is moving so quickly compared to our parents' generation or our grandparents' generation. In fact, when people are skeptical about literacy, I often say that if you're a member of the baby-boomer generation, which many of us are--probably most of us in this room--I'll bet your grandparents didn't go to high school. I'll bet in many cases your parents didn't finish high school, whether you live in Newfoundland, Montreal, or northern British Columbia
I can use my own family as an example. The O'Learys and the Sullivans came here at the turn of the century. They were literally Irish peasants. They had never been to school. My father went to school until about grade six and then he started working on the farm. He was in the army and then he worked at Massey Ferguson for 40 years. He could fix anything. My mother had a grade 10 education. But to call my father illiterate, I think, would be inaccurate. He was able to participate in his society at that time.
The literacy landscape is moving so quickly that we as educators are having a hard time keeping up to it. And you're right, but we're all constantly engaged in learning and relearning.
As a final comment, you mentioned the BlackBerry. Mr. Lazaridis, who is president of Research In Motion and who created the BlackBerry, made a speech about a year ago. He said that this country needs a mission and that it should be to become the smartest country in the world. I wrote to him. I said that's a great vision; as a teacher and educator, I love that. But, I said, let's not forget the unemployed people or the older people; the people who are cleaning the rooms, as we speak, in this hotel right now; and the working people who don't have a lot of formal education. They also need to be able to participate in this learning society, and not just in the highly skilled trades and as post-secondary students in our country.
Oddly enough, Mr. Lazaridis hasn't replied yet. I'll have to get after him.
